- Graduate Program
- Graduate Admissions
- Master of Arts Degree Requirements
- Doctor of Philosophy Degree Requirements
The following information supplements the UCSB General Catalog, which may be accessed on the web at http://www.catalog.ucsb.edu/.
In addition to departmental requirements, candidates for graduate degrees must fulfill the university degree requirements found in the General Catalog listed under the heading "Graduate Education at UCSB."
The department does not admit students solely for the purpose of obtaining a master's degree. All applicants are admitted to a single M.A./Ph.D. program. The M.A. degree in history is looked upon as a valuable stage on the path to the doctorate. Although it is understood that some students may choose not to continue beyond the M.A., and that others may not be permitted to do so, the aim of the program is to provide students with research training leading to the doctoral degree.
Applicants to the graduate program in History are expected to show high potential for engaging in advanced historical research and analysis. Applicants must meet general university requirements for admission to graduate standing and should have completed an undergraduate major in History or related fields (approximately 40 upper-division quarter units or approximately 24 upper-division semester units). History is a discipline that benefits from training in other fields, so applicants who do not meet these requirements are still encouraged to apply, but are also strongly urged to contact faculty in their proposed field of study for advice. If admitted, applicants who were not History majors may be required to do some additional course work, which must be completed in the first year and does not count in satisfaction of graduate degree unit or course requirements.
Applicants must submit a suitable sample of historical writing, such as a term paper or equivalent, and three letters of recommendation. We strongly prefer research papers that draw upon both primary and secondary sources. The letters of recommendation should address the applicant's academic qualifications for graduate work in history. In addition, applicants ordinarily are expected to have a minimum grade-point average of 3.5 in upper-division history courses (or 3.75 in master's courses), and minimum scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) of 85th percentile in verbal and an analytical writing score of 5.0.
It should be stressed that admission to the program is competitive, and satisfying these minimum requirements does not, by itself, guarantee admission. At the same time, the decision to admit is based on consideration of the entire file, and promising applicants in unusual circumstances whose records fall below the minimum should not be discouraged from applying.
Master of Arts -- History
Degree Requirements
The M.A. degree will be awarded to students who satisfy the requirements prescribed by the Graduate Council and who, in addition, meet the following requirements:
Foreign language. The student must demonstrate reading proficiency in at least one foreign language within one calendar year after the M.A. Comprehensive exam. Options for fulfilling the requirement are detailed in the History Department Graduate Handbook. Students are encouraged to satisfy this requirement as soon as possible.
Unit requirements. The student must pass a minimum of 36 units of upper-division and graduate history courses. No course will count for the degree if the grade is less than 3.0. At least 24 of these units must be in graduate courses numbered between 200 and 292, with 4 units of History 202 (required of all students who have not had a graduate course in historiography) and at least 8 units in research seminars, which will result in the preparation of original research papers. Papers produced in these seminars lay the foundation for doctoral work and are taken into account along with the results of the comprehensive examinations in evaluating students for admission to the Ph.D. program. History 596 does not apply to the research seminar unit requirement, but 8 units will apply toward the 36-unit requirement. Most research seminars last two quarters. Check with the graduate program assistant for credited seminars.
Comprehensive examinations. The student must pass one three-hour written examination in any of the graduate fields listed below. The department offers reading courses in many of these fields to help students prepare for these examinations. History 200 courses are designed to cover large, general fields; History 201 courses cover more specialized fields.
- United States*
- Colonial Latin America
- National Latin America
- East Asia to 1600
- East Asia after 1600
- Africa
- History of Science
- Early Modern Europe (1450-1815)
- Modern Europe (1789- )
- Medieval Europe
- Middle East (600-1700)
- Middle East (1700- )
- Ancient Mediterranean World
- History of Public Policy
- *An Afro-American, Chicano, or American Indian emphasis is acceptable in this field.
Doctor of Philosophy-History
Admission
The M.A. degree in history or a cognate field is normally required for admission into the Ph.D. program. Applicants who do not meet this requirement must complete the M.A. in history before continuing to the Ph.D. The application deadline for those applying with an M.A. degree from another institution is December 5. Students taking the master's examination at UC Santa Barbara must achieve an average grade of A- or higher. In addition, the candidate must acquire a minimum of three satisfactory recommendations from professors within the department, including at least two from professors who have supervised or reviewed the candidate's graduate seminar research papers. One of the letters must be from the student's mentor.
The General Fields of History
The Department of History at UCSB offers doctoral study in eleven general fields of history:
- United States
- Latin America
- East Asia
- Africa
- The Middle East
- History of Science
- Ancient Mediterranean World
- Medieval Europe
- Early Modern Europe (1450-1815)
- Modern Europe (1789- )
- History of Public Policy
- *Comparative Gender
- *World History
*Offered only as a third field, and not as a possible first or second field. Please refer to "Degree Requirements: General Examinations" for further description of field three, the outside field in history.
Students will study, and in due time present themselves for examination, in four examination fields, two of them chosen from one of the above general fields, and the third chosen from a second general field. The fourth examination field will be either a fourth field of history outside the geographical/cultural field of the other two fields, or in an outside academic department (see below, under "General Examinations"). The four professors under whom the students study as they prepare for their examinations constitute their doctoral committee. One of its members is the student's major professor, who presides.
Program Supervision
Once admitted to the Ph.D. level, each student will be systematically advised by his or her major professor, who will submit a review of the student's progress and prospects annually in the spring quarter. The results of the annual review will be individually communicated to the student by his or her mentor or by the director of graduate studies. If the student's progress is unsatisfactory, the student will be notified in this letter that he or she is being placed on a one-year probationary status. If at the end of that year progress is still unsatisfactory, the department chair will recommend to the dean of the Graduate Division that the student be dismissed from graduate study.
Degree Requirements
Unit requirements. Students in the doctoral program must enroll for at least six regular academic quarters (not summer sessions) on the UCSB campus pursuing a program of full-time study and research. Three consecutive quarters of this residency must be completed in regular session before advancement to candidacy. Students must complete 24 units of history research seminars, 8 units of which can be taken from the M.A. requirements. Check with the graduate program assistant for credited seminars. History 596 does not count as a research seminar. Students must take at least one graduate course in each of the four areas presented for examination (research seminars and courses taken while in the M.A. program satisfy this requirement), and a graduate course in historiography (History 202) if such a course has not been taken prior to admission to the doctoral program. Doctoral students in American history must take History 292A-B-C, in addition to the 24 units of research seminars.
Foreign language. The student must pass at least one foreign language examination, a requirement which may be satisfied by passing the foreign language examination for the UC Santa Barbara M.A. in history, or, with the approval of the graduate committee, an examination at another institution. Additional language requirements pertinent to the field of research may be specified by the major professor with the approval of the graduate committee. Preparation and supervision of these additional language examinations are the responsibility of the major professor, who may or may not use the regular departmental foreign language examinations.
Students should plan to satisfy the departmental foreign language requirement as soon as possible, but in no case later than the end of the second year in the doctoral program. No student will be allowed to take the general examinations for the Ph.D. without having completed the departmental language requirement, as well as any additional language requirements required by the major professor.
General examinations. Upon satisfying the unit and foreign language requirements, students will be eligible to take their general examinations. Candidates are required to present themselves for examination in four fields of study--three within the department and a fourth which may be either a cognate field outside the department or a fourth history field. Examinations in the three history fields will be both written and oral; the examination in the cognate field, or fourth history field, will only be oral. The four fields are:
1. The major field, taken under the student's major professor. It will be in that professor's special field, or, with the approval of the graduate committee, in a closely related field. The major field ordinarily provides the intellectual basis for the dissertation and the student's later emphasis in teaching and research. The student is expected to achieve depth and breadth of scholarly sophistication and mastery in this field.
2. The general field is the field within which the student's major field is located (e.g., U.S. history is the general field if the major field is U.S. diplomatic history). The student is expected to show breadth and perspective in this field in order to set his or her specialty within its encompassing framework and to be able to teach survey courses.
3. The outside field in history, chosen from a second of the department's graduate fields (see above). This field may be either specialized (as in 1 above) or general (as in 2), depending on the mutual decision of the student, the major professor, and the supervisor of the outside field. This requirement affords the student, for comparative purposes, a deep encounter with the history of a period or culture distinct from that studied in Fields 1 and 2 and also to enable him or her to offer survey courses in this field.
4A. A cognate field outside the discipline of history is chosen from within another academic department. This field should strengthen the student's grasp of Field l and be comparable in depth and richness to Fields 2 and 3.
4B. With the approval of the major professor and the director of graduate studies, students may substitute for the cognate field a fourth history field which is outside the geographical/cultural areas of the three other history fields.. For European and U.S. historians, the field should be non-European and non-U.S. history, respectively. Examples are Africa, Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America. Alternatively, special topics may be chosen, such as environmental history, women's history, native American history, military history, and religious history. These too should have some component outside the geographical/cultural area of the other history fields The department has added this option to maximize students' opportunities on the job market, where many institutions seek candidates who can teach non-Western or world history, or both.
Doctoral students should select their four fields in consultation with their major professor during their first quarter of study.
The three written examinations in history must all be completed within a period of one month from the date of the first examination. Each of these examinations will be of three hours' duration. Within one week of passing the last of these examinations, the student must take an oral examination in all four fields. The minimum time allotted to this examination is two hours, but the time period may be extended as warranted by the four examiners.
The doctoral dissertation. The doctoral dissertation must be an original work of historical research in the field of the candidate's specialization. It must be in clear prose, have intellectual depth, and demonstrate a mastery of historical methodology. A dissertation prospectus must be prepared by the student and be approved by the major professor and the examination committee, which will serve as the dissertation committee. When the dissertation is written and approved, the candidate may be asked to appear for an oral examination in the field of the dissertation.
Teaching assistantship. A candidate will be required to qualify for and hold a teaching assistantship or a research assistantship for at least one quarter as part of the preparation for the Ph.D. degree. Teaching Assistantships are competitive awards with far many more applicants than there are positions. A TAship, thus, is never guaranteed--it is not an entitlement--although most graduate students hold one for at least two years.